Early Entries Pour in as NYIOOC Adds Even More Value to Winning

The fifth edition of the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil competition will feature an expanded suite of tools designed to make it easier for buyers of all types to obtain the winning brands.

Olive oil samples masked to conceal their identities are readied for judging atthe 2016 New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC)
By Olive Oil Times Staff
Oct. 17, 2016 10:20 UTC
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Olive oil samples masked to conceal their identities are readied for judging atthe 2016 New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC)

Even as the first olives from the new 2016/2017 har­vest are being crushed into oil, pro­duc­ers around the world are enter­ing their brands in the 2017 New York International Olive Oil Competition at the fastest rate in the five-year his­tory of the con­test.

The 2017 NYIOOC will be held April 24 – 27 — a few weeks later in the sea­son than past edi­tions, allow­ing more Southern Hemisphere brands to par­tic­i­pate, orga­niz­ers said.
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While there is con­cern about a lower over­all pro­duc­tion this year due to dry con­di­tions in Spain and wide­spread fruit-fly dam­age in Italy, many pro­duc­ers seem con­fi­dent that the oil they ulti­mately pro­duce will be good enough to con­tend on New York’s global stage.

More than 820 brands from 26 coun­tries were judged in the 2016 edi­tion of the world’s largest and most pres­ti­gious olive oil com­pe­ti­tion. The win­ners are pre­sented on the web­site bestoliveoils.org — the sec­ond most-vis­ited olive oil web­site in the world behind Olive Oil Times — and nearly 100 win­ning brands are avail­able for sale on the Best Olive Oils Marketplace directly from the importers and mer­chants who stock them.

Importers, dis­trib­u­tors, retail­ers and restau­rants use the Best Olive Oils index as a buy­ing guide to the world’s best olive oils. Winning pro­duc­ers have reported that their awards have opened doors with key cus­tomers and new mar­kets.

Curtis Cord, the NYIOOC pres­i­dent, said sev­eral ini­tia­tives will add even more value to win­ning in 2017, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of new ways for buy­ers to val­i­date an oil before pur­chas­ing. We’re build­ing on the suc­cess of the Best Olive Oils Guide by adding a native app that will allow a buyer to scan any bot­tle with a phone to see if it is a win­ning oil,” he said. Beyond that, we will present tast­ing notes, food pair­ing sug­ges­tions, infor­ma­tion about the olive cul­ti­vars used and the region where the oil was pro­duced, right there quickly and con­ve­niently on the mobile device where the buyer needs it.”

2016 NYIOOC tasting event and press conference

At the same time, Cord said, his team will soon be rolling out a mes­sag­ing net­work within the NYIOOC Producer Tools plat­form that will facil­i­tate exchanges between buy­ers and the win­ning pro­duc­ers to encour­age whole­sale trade oppor­tu­ni­ties. We are com­mit­ted to mak­ing it as easy as pos­si­ble for dis­trib­u­tors and buy­ers to stock the best olive oils, and one of the ways we can do that is through mes­sag­ing. Buyers will be able to fil­ter win­ning brands by the award they achieved, stock loca­tion, and ex-works price ranges to ini­ti­ate con­tact with pro­duc­ers who match their cri­te­ria with one click.”

Development will also con­tinue on the inno­v­a­tive olive oil and food pair­ing app, which has been used by more than 150,000 peo­ple since it was intro­duced ear­lier this year to find the best olive oil to use for a cer­tain dish. In addi­tion to iden­ti­fy­ing the best oil to use for broiled cod, for exam­ple, the app will be expanded to include regional dishes such as Ribollita, a Tuscan stew, to pin­point an oil from the same region and main­tain the cul­tural integrity of the dish.

And finally, the var­i­ous solu­tions for pro­duc­ers, mer­chants and con­sumers will be more tightly woven into the inter­face of Olive Oil Times in a redesign to be launched next sum­mer. Rather than rely­ing merely on ban­ner ad posi­tions to direct users to the com­po­nents avail­able on our broader plat­form, we are work­ing on inte­grat­ing them more flu­idly within a por­tal redesign to lever­age the world’s #1 olive oil web­site, and improve the expe­ri­ence for our read­ers who are seek­ing answers to their grow­ing con­cerns over olive oil qual­ity,” Cord said.

Olive oil pro­duc­ers and brand man­agers can reg­is­ter for the 2017 NYIOOC on the com­pe­ti­tion web­site.



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